And Presumably, Chas Freeman Supports This Punishment, Too: After All, It's Only 40 Lashes For A 75-year-old Woman

March 10, 2009

CAIRO (AP) - A 75-year-old widow in Saudi Arabia has been sentenced to 40 lashes
and four months in jail for mingling with two young men who are not close
relatives, drawing new criticism for the kingdom's ultraconservative religious
police and judiciary. The woman's lawyer told The Associated Press on Monday
that he would appeal the verdict against Khamisa Sawadi, who is Syrian but was
married to a Saudi. The attorney, Abdel Rahman al-Lahem, said the verdict issued
March 3 also demands that Sawadi be deported after serving her sentence. He said
his client, who is not serving her sentence yet, was not speaking with the
media, and he declined to provide more details about the case. The newspaper
Al-Watan said the woman met with the two 24-year-old men last April after she
asked them to bring her five loaves of bread at her home in al-Chamil, a city
north of the capital, Riyadh. Al-Watan identified one man as Fahd al-Anzi, the
nephew of Sawadi's late husband, and the other as his friend and business
partner Hadiyan bin Zein. It said they were arrested by the religious police
after delivering the bread. The men also were convicted and sentenced to lashes
and prison. The court said it based its ruling on "citizen information" and
testimony from al-Anzi's father, who accused Sawadi of corruption. "Because she
said she doesn't have a husband and because she is not a Saudi, conviction of
the defendants of illegal mingling has been confirmed," the court verdict read.
Saudi Arabia's strict interpretation of Islam prohibits men and women who are
not immediate relatives from mingling. It also bars women from driving, and the
playing of music, dancing and many movies also are a concern for hard-liners who
believe they violate religious and moral values. Complaints from Saudis have
been growing that the religious police and courts are overstepping their broad
mandate and interfering in people's lives, and critics lambasted the handling of
Sawadi's case. "How can a verdict be issued based on suspicion?" Laila Ahmed
al-Ahdab, a physician who also is a columnist for Al-Watan, wrote Monday. "A
group of people are misusing religion to serve their own interests." Sawadi told
the court she considered al-Anzi as her son, because she breast-fed him when he
was a baby. But the court denied her claim, saying she didn't provide evidence.
In Islamic tradition, breast-feeding establishes a degree of maternal relation,
even if a woman nurses a child who is not biologically hers. Sawadi commonly
asked her neighbors for help after her husband died, said journalist Bandar
al-Ammar, who reported the story for Al-Watan. In a recent article, he wrote
that he felt the need to report the case "so everybody knows to what degree we
have reached." The woman's conviction came a few weeks after King Abdullah fired
the chief of the religious police and a cleric who condoned killing owners of TV
networks that broadcast "immoral content." The move was seen as part of an
effort to weaken the hard-line Sunni Muslim establishment.